How to Analyse Your Own Games (and Actually Improve)

Playing more games doesn’t make you better on its own. Learning from the games you play does. The fastest-improving students at ChessDepth all have one habit in common: they analyse every serious game they play, especially their losses.

The problem is that most players “analyse” by switching on the engine, watching the evaluation bar, and moving on. That teaches very little. Here is a better method.

Step 1: Write down your thoughts right after the game

As soon as the game ends, while it is fresh, write a few notes:

• What was my plan in the middlegame?
• Where did I spend a lot of time, and why?
• Which moment did I feel the game turn?
• What did I miss that my opponent saw?

These notes are gold. Later, they show you how you were thinking, not just which moves were wrong.

Step 2: Analyse alone first, without the engine

Go through the game slowly on a board or in a Lichess study. At each important moment, ask:

• What were the threats (for both sides)?
• What were my candidate moves? Which did I choose, and why?
• Was there a check, capture or threat I missed? (See our CCT method.)

Write your conclusions next to the moves. Yes, some of them will be wrong. That is the point: the engine will correct you later, and the correction will stick much better because you thought about it first.

Step 3: Check the opening

Compare your opening with your repertoire file or the opening explorer:

• Where did you leave known theory?
• Was your move a reasonable one, or a mistake?
• Add the correct line to your repertoire so you are ready next time.

Step 4: Now use the engine, as a checker

Turn on the engine and look only at the critical moments: where the evaluation changed a lot. For each one:

1. Find out why the engine’s move is better. Play it out a few moves.
2. If you don’t understand the engine’s suggestion, don’t just accept it. Ask your coach, or move on. A move you don’t understand will not help you in a game.
3. Compare the engine’s verdict with your own notes from Step 2.

Step 5: Find the lesson

Every game should leave you with one or two lessons, written in a single sentence. For example:

• “I keep pushing my h-pawn in front of my castled king without a reason.”
• “When I am short of time I stop checking my opponent’s threats.”
• “I don’t know what to do in the Carlsbad structure after the opening.”

Keep these lessons in one notebook or document. After 20 games, read them all. You will see your recurring weaknesses, and those tell you exactly what to study next.

Classify your mistakes

It helps to put each mistake into a category:

Type of mistake	Typical cause	What to train
Tactical oversight	Didn’t check forcing moves	Daily puzzles, the CCT habit
Opening problem	Didn’t know the ideas	Model games in your opening
Wrong plan	Misread the position	Positional study, pawn structures
Endgame technique	Missing knowledge	Basic endgame positions
Time trouble	Slow decisions	Thinking routine, practice games
Psychological	Tilt, overconfidence, fear	Mental routines, more rated games

Show your games to a coach

A coach sees patterns you cannot see yourself. At ChessDepth, students regularly share games with their coach and go through them together, and the lessons go straight into the next block of classes.

Analysing one game properly is worth more than playing ten more without thinking. Make it a habit, and your rating will follow.